Khan's sudden advance made the teams hurry forward. The Thilku had difficulty advancing in that slippery environment while maintaining their battle formation, and getting to the big passage worsened their situation.
The river was vast, but the passage was even bigger, featuring sidewalk-like roads at its sides. Yet, those paths were slightly narrow for the Thilku, forcing them to abandon their battle formations to advance in lines of two.
The march grew even slower due to that additional hindrance. The troops didn't want to swim to the other side of the river either to avoid splitting their forces, and breaks happened once the darkness became unbearable.
The soldiers quickly rearranged the lamp-wielders to add clarity to the area and resume their advance, but anxiety began to spread. They were blind in enemy territory, and their scanners could prove themselves useless underground.
The anxiety intensified quickly since updates about the troops' position resounded. The teams had crossed the new trench, touching territories below the latest battlefields. If monsters were still in the area, they were bound to meet them from now on.
The Thilku handled that suffocating feeling well, but reassurance and relaxation still arrived when a familiar figure appeared in the distance. A few soldiers couldn't help but heave sighs of relief when they saw Khan hovering above the river.
Khan could have seized that chance to abandon the Thilku, but part of him wanted to stay true to the agreement. Moreover, leaving his companions alone in that unmapped area was too dangerous. He didn't want to blame himself for their deaths if something happened.
The Thilku didn't know Khan was waiting for them and had sensed their arrival long ago. His stance was too serious even to give that idea. He kept himself in the air with almost unnoticeable ankle movements, his gaze was fixed straight ahead, and his left hand was tightly gripped his knife. He looked battle ready, and he was.
Still, once the Thilku got close enough, Khan broke his stare to inspect them. That narrow, slippery passage truly was annoying for those aliens' huge frames, but Khan knew an open area would soon arrive.
Khan exchanged a glance with all the team leaders before flying ahead, restraining his speed to let the Thilku follow him. He still put enough distance from the team to fulfill his role as a scout, but the red light never stopped shining on his back.
Of course, Khan reviewed the previous surprising event. Talking through water was no easy feat, especially from a distance that stretched past his senses' range. Still, the area didn't have any clue. A stream of energy had simply flowed through the river to perform that technique before disappearing.
The words spoken by the puppet were also strange, but Khan couldn't find them surprising. The hive mind theory gained ground, but it was also possible that special monsters had inspected him from far away.
Going in the opposite direction of the river's flow brought the group deeper underground and, eventually, inside another open space that looked bigger than the previous. Multiple rivers appeared once again, creating an intricate array, but different details distracted both Khan and the teams.
The Thilku immediately grew worried about the place's size. The lamps in their hands couldn't reach the hall's walls and barely touched the ceiling, revealing its wet and rocky surface.
Instead, Khan could mostly see thanks to the symphony, and its flow revealed the presence of tens of tunnels that stretched past his senses' range. The area resembled an underground node of some sort, and it was unclear where those passages led.
'This is dangerous,' Khan thought before the symphony proved his worries right. Ripples spread through the natural mana inside the many tunnels, growing stronger with each passing second and hinting at imminent danger.
Khan absorbed anything he could for a few seconds before turning toward the Thilku. The soldiers had temporarily stopped to take the area in, but their location wasn't suitable for what was coming. It was too small, and a tiny river even hindered eventual battle formations.
"[Get there]!" Khan shouted, pointing at a larger patch of rocks between two rivers that could hold the entire group.
Receiving orders from a human could make most Thilku cry in anger, but Khan's reputation had gone a long way during the past weeks. He also drew his knife, which spoke louder than words.
Naoo and the other team leaders didn't hesitate to shout short cries and lead their troops toward the appointed location. The group ran, stomping their feet to combat the slippery rocks and jumping over any river in their path.
Luckily for the Thilku, the area had a suitable location nearby. There were better places, but Khan felt that reaching them would have been too difficult and lengthy with the impending danger.
Once settled, the Thilku dropped their scanners and lamps and wielded their weapons to create two defensive lines. They only wanted to hold their position, and Khan didn't hesitate to land before them when they were ready.
"[How many]?" Naoo directly asked. Khan had searched for her eyes before turning, so she knew something was up.
"[I can't say]," Khan admitted. There were only a hundred soldiers down there, which wasn't nearly enough to endure an attack of thousands. However, the area to defend was small, which made that eventuality barely survivable.
Khan's unclear explanation worsened the tension that had begun to spread. The Thilku were relying on him for that exact role, and he wasn't fulfilling it properly.
"[I'll support from the above]," Khan added, tapping the rocky floor to send himself into the air. "[You deal with anything that reaches you]."
Seeing Khan leaving the battle formation intensified the anger born from the vague explanation. It almost seemed he was abandoning the Thilku, choosing to be in the air to increase his survival chances. That was a ploy the aliens would expect from an outsider, but what followed dispersed any growing complaint.
A wild coldness invaded the area, expanding into the immense underground hall in an attempt to fill its every corner. Purple-red light also shone, overcoming the lamps' red halo and lifting many eyes.
Khan hovered near the ceiling and unleashed his mana without bothering about patterns or efficiency. He only had one goal in mind. He wanted to fill the environment with as much chaos as possible before the battle unfolded.
The underground hall was no different from a vast plain. Many would have confused it for an open space on the surface without that rocky ceiling. Khan couldn't influence something so big too quickly, but he definitely tried.
The doubts experienced by the Thilku disappeared at that sight. They didn't know what Khan was doing, but the sensations that reached their minds were clear. Khan had no intention of shying back from the incoming battle. He would fight as hard as possible.
Confirming Khan's stance was reassuring, but the more experienced warriors among the Thilku noticed troublesome issues. The underground world had firmer surfaces, but Cegnore remained brittle. The hall might not endure a battle, especially if Khan went all-out.
Similar doubts invaded Khan, and his inspection of the area never dispersed them. He could sort of guess what those rocky surfaces could endure due to the symphony, but his findings weren't certain. He was working with hypotheses, which wasn't ideal when tons of rocks could submerge him.
'It wouldn't be the first time I survived something like this,' Khan thought, glancing at the ceiling before looking at the Thilku. 'They are the only problem.'
Strategies formed and shattered in Khan's mind. The incoming battle was bound to challenge his control over his new technique, but he was ready for it. He had to. Everyone would die otherwise.
Khan could feel the Thilku wanted more reassurance, but the situation didn't allow him to split his focus. He closed his eyes, pushing his thoughts outside his mind to fuse them with the strands of mana that belonged to him. Khan needed precision in chaos. He needed perfection among the wildest type of energy.
The rivers' noise prevented the troops from learning about the incoming mess until it was too late. The scanners tried to warn them, but the loud water submerged them. They noticed what was coming only when the lamps illuminated the threat, and their ranks tightened to face it.
The red halo turned blue near its edges and began to hide the many rivers. A wave of howling fur had filled the horizon, taking control of every corner the Thilku could inspect.
Hungry monsters had left the tunnels and were charging at the team, recklessly jumping into rivers or on their companions to get to their prey first. The lack of intelligence in that behavior was reassuring on the surface but made little difference underground.
The various team leaders were the calmest of the bunch, but that was a fa?ade. Their eyes tried to go wide as soon as they started counting the number of opponents. A few hundred wolves had appeared in their sight, and it was unclear how many stood behind them.
A few Thilku shot hopeful looks at Khan, but he was unreachable. His feet barely moved to keep him in the air while his entire concentration was on the symphony. He had even stopped releasing mana, spreading doubt among the troops.
The troops' training kicked in after they gave up on Khan's miraculous strength. If they had to die there, they'd take as many Tainted animals with them as possible. That was the last service they could provide to the Empire, and their pride demanded that they accomplish it.
The beasts grew closer, sending their nefarious breath forward. Their howls became deafening, suppressing the rivers' noise. They shortened their distance until only a few meters separated them from the troops, and the latter began to cry to declare their battle intent.
However, when the first line of wolves got within leaping range, a series of purple-red uneven masses materialized right above them. Almost thirty appeared in specific areas of the pack and began to take the shape of spears before a tremor detonated them simultaneously.
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